Deep in the Forest, We Met
by Chocobubbles
Summary: A young Tenten teaches the thirteen year old Uchiha Itachi a lesson in kunai throwing.


Hey, I'm not dead! Haha : D Anyway, I wrote this and I think it's adorably cute! Hope Itachi's not too OOC. Oh and I love the idea of little Tenten with pig-tails!

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Perfection did not even come close to describing him. He was the epitome of all that was physically right in the world—maybe not morally speaking, but definitely physically. Every motion, ever action, every move he ever made was precise and executed so beautifully...it was exact enough to drive some people mad—jealousy, envy, and self-hatred eating them alive.

However, we shall call him perfect, for lack of more accurate words: words that have probably not been invented yet. Though, that was all right for the time being; he had been used to settling for less than he deserved.

The clashing sound of the all the blades hitting the center of their targets had grown to bore him. It had even gone to the point of slight irritation. He could never settle for the same thing, over and over again, without ever changing. Even if he had gone to the place of what many would call impossible, he had to go farther. He had to surpass impossible.

"Not too impressive."

And for the first time in an extremely long span of years, the prodigious Uchiha Itachi was caught off guard.

He was speechless.

The little girl couldn't have been older than nine years, which was not too much older than his little brother. Her red tank top looked worn and a little too tight on her, bearing her midriff slightly. Her dirty black Capri pants were cut off just a few centimeters below the knee, and revealed three or four bandages attached to her legs. Her sandals were pink and muddy, and Itachi almost cringed at the sight of them.

She had chocolate brown hair, which was barely long enough to tie into some short little pig-tails at the base of her head.

Her eyes were innocent, but thick with disdain.

And she was looking at _him_.

"Pardon me?" Itachi finally spoke, his tone not friendly in the least.

"Your little show there..." she said, crossing her arms, shutting her eyes, and shaking her head in contempt, "tsk, tsk...not good at all."

Now he was starting to get a little annoyed.

He stared at the girl, his glare painfully blasé.

"Really? And _you_ can tell me how to improve, yes?" he challenged.

"Well 'course I can!" she said looking straight into his eyes with the most confidence he had ever seen anyone give him.

He caught himself before he let on that he was slightly taken aback by her brazenness. Then she shed a little remorse, blushing embarrassedly.

"That is...if you want me to..." She held her hands behind her back and scuffled her foot against the ground nervously.

He pondered this for a moment. He knew that his conscious mind would never let him live down the fact that he had taken advice from an ignorant little girl who was his _brother's_ age, but then his _subconscious _mind knew that there might be a little more to this. Perhaps it was wise, in a crazy, brutally twisted way, to actually listen to this dog of a girl.

Because she was brave.

She had been bold enough to criticize him, something that no competent person would have done. Though, he had grown tired of competence. It was something, that usually in his situation, only belonged to cowards. So maybe she had something inside her that made her worthy.

"Elaborate." he said.

"Oh well...'kay...hmm..." she rubbed her chin, "Oh yeah! Now I remember! Ahem...all of the kunai..."

"Yes?" he pressed.

"They're off center."

Perhaps he had been dead wrong.

"I don't even have to look at the targets to tell you that you are incorrect." he said nonchalantly.

"Huh?" she said, "Oh maybe you didn't understand me. That's 'kay, most people don't get it the first time I say it."

Itachi felt his eye twitch. Now she was classing him as _"most people"_? How dare she?

"I think that it is you that doesn't understand." he stated.

"Here, I'll 'splain," she said, "when I say they're 'off center' I know they hit the middle of the target, but I'm saying they're at the wrong angle."

"The _wrong angle_?" Itachi repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah see, look..." Tenten pointed in the direction of the nearest target, and sure enough, the blade was off-angle, but really, what did that matter?

"I see," Itachi agreed, surveying the rest of the targets, "but I don't see the relevance of the angle of the blade, and the accuracy of hitting the target."

"It really doesn't have to do anything with vis'bul accuracy," she said smartly, "but think, if you're trying to hit a person, and you wanna...kill him, it matters. I mean, let's say you were aiming for his head, right? There are special ways to hit it that will assure...death, but the angle has to be perfect! I mean, if you hit him in the head, but at an angle that barely misses the target that could end him, what good his that? Sure you'd cause him brain damage, but in the ninja world, we aim to kill. That's right, right?"

He had not even noticed that she had made her way over and was now standing right in front of him, looking up at him with her big, earthy brown eyes. He did not speak. His mind was spinning.

He actually thought that she was _right._

For so long, that subject had not even crossed his mind. He had focused so much on hitting the targets in the center that he had not even thought about the angle. It was so simple, and he had overlooked it! The more he thought about it, the more the girl's words had made sense...angle _does _matter.

As he looked at all his off-angle kunai, he felt embarrassed, and then he felt embarrassed to be embarrassed, because he was still in the presence of her.

He masked his emotions perfectly, though.

"Well, you seem to be very intelligent," he said, walking around the field and plucking the blades from their targets, "why don't you demonstrate?"

He gave her the handful of kunai, resisting a smirk that wanted to creep onto his face.

"Oh well...'kay!" she smiled happily, and to his immense surprise, she picked up a mere _single_ kunai from his hands.

"Are you sure that's all you need?" he asked.

"Um...yeah." she replied.

"Well, I see six targets here."

"Thank's for tellin' me. I have eyes too ya know?" she said indignantly. His eye twitched again.

"How do you expect to hit all six targets with only _one _kunai?"

"Huh?" she said dumfounded.

He rolled his eyes, "Little girl, are you that foolish?"

"Ohhh!" she said, slapping a hand to her forehead. Then, to further his annoyance, she burst out laughing.

His fists clenched at his sides.

"What's so funny?" he asked coldly.

"Hahaha...hahaha...ha...ha," she said, bending over and holding her stomach, "You...you thought that...hahahaha...you thought that I was gonna...haha...hit _all _the targets?"

"Well...aren't you?" he asked, piqued that he was starting to feel slightly stupid.

"'Course not!" she said as if it was elementary, "What are ya? Crazy? I'm a nine year old little girl for cryin' out loud! I'm good, I'll admit, but not that good...at least not yet."

"At your age I could do that blindfolded." Itachi stated plainly.

"Well you're a weirdo!" she giggled, "but I _will_ take you up on that blindfold thing..."

Without even looking around for a cloth of some sort, she used the kunai to cut off a piece of her Capri pants. She tied it over her eyes, and took a few paces backwards. Itachi watched eagerly.

She held up her hand, kunai held firmly by it's handle, and threw it.

It darted so fast, that Itachi swore that if he had blinked he would have missed it.

It hit the target, directly in it's center, and it was obvious that it was jutting out from the board at a one-hundred eighty-degree angle—horizontally.

That was a fatal hit...there was no way anyone could have survived it. There was no leeway at all, where as with some good medical help the damage done with his kunai could have been cured of barely.

And even if it was _barely_, the point was that it was not _as good_ as hers, and she had done it blindfolded as well.

She turned towards him and took off her blindfold, bright brown eyes staring up at him again.

"Told ya!" she beamed.

"How do you know you even hit it?" he asked.

"_I don't even have to look at it_." she mimicked him. He frowned.

"What's your name, little girl?" he asked.

She smiled and cocked her head, "Tenten."

"Well Tenten," said Itachi, "thank you."

He could not even believe he had just said that. Here is was, the genius, the prodigy, and he was paying his gratitude to a nine year old girl for showing him the proper way to throw a kunai.

The world was definitely mad.

"Welcome," she said, blushing again, "hey..."

She walked back up to him and grabbed his wrist. He was a little shocked.

She dug in her pocket for something and pulled out a little string of yellow flowers.

"My friend Ino taught me how to make these," she said, fastening the string around his wrist so it would become a bracelet, "she said you should give em' to people you like. And I think I like you so, here."

She finished her work and stepped back. He brought his wrist up to his eyes, scrutinizing the tiny pale flowers. They were dusty from being in her pocket, but still pretty nonetheless.

"You _think_ you like me?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Well I can't decide between like and love...unless you wanna be my boyfriend!" she gave him a toothy grin, and he couldn't help but smile himself.

"I think I'll pass." he said.

"I thought you'd say that..." Tenten said sadly. She watched as Itachi walked over to the target and plucked out the kunai. He walked back over and took her hand. He gingerly placed the kunai in her palm and closed her fingers around it's handle.

"But since you gave me a present, it's only fair that I give you one too." he said.

"You're letting me have your kunai?" she asked with wide eyes.

"I've got plenty more, and besides, you know how to handle it right, so it should be yours." he said simply.

"Wow thanks...um...what was your name?" she asked.

He bent down so that he was closer to her face and said, "Itachi."

"Oh, then thanks Weasel-kun!" she giggled, planting a small kiss on his nose.

He snapped back up, stunned at her action. Before he could speak, they heard a loud yell from the forest around them.

"Tenteeeeeeeen!" it shouted, then echoing amongst the trees. Itachi then saw a small boy about Tenten's age making his way towards the clearing. His skin was vanilla-white, he had long ebony hair, and big, lavender eyes.

A Hyuuga, Itachi thought to himself.

"Tenten," he said to her, finally reaching the two of them, "hurry up, we have to finish our training, and it will be dark soon!"

The small boy looked at her intently, but she just grinned back at his serious face.

"Oh, sorry Neji, I was a little distracted...but look what Weasel-kun gave me!" she thrust the small kunai in the boy's face. He looked at it confusedly.

"Weasel-kun?" he inquired.

Tenten pointed to Itachi, "He's my new friend! Isn't he dreamy?"

She blushed as she said it, almost as the words had spouted out to quick for her to stop them. Neji however, was not pleased.

He looked Itachi up and down, his pale eye glossed with derision. Itachi returned his expression with nothing but disinterest.

"Come on Tenten," said Neji, pulling her arm, "we're going."

He proceeded to drag her out of the clearing.

"Hey, Neji! Don't pull so hard!" Tenten complained. She winked over her shoulder at Itachi, "Bye Weasel-kun! I won't forget you!"

She waved at him and then disappeared into the darkness.

---

When Itachi returned home that day, he threw his flower bracelet away.

But the next day, he returned to the clearing, and worked for endless hours, trying to perfect the angle of his hits.

END


End file.
